I'm not involved in that study in any way, in case that's what you're wondering about (I just stumbled upon the survey and thought someone here might be interested). So I can only guess as to what their purpose is (and I haven't taken the survey myself yet). What I do know is that LPP is a widely accepted framework and is often used to explain informal learning processes, and (informal) learning processes in online communities have become a popular research topic in recent years.

I guess they want to learn more about how and to what extent people new to Linux get involved in the Linux community, who their interact with, where they can find useful information, how and to what extent more experienced users help the newbs, etc.